12 TV Shows You Should Stick With for Five Episodes: You’ll Be Hooked

If you’ve opened any streaming app lately, you know the drill: algorithms throw hundreds of shows at your face—most of them forgettable, a few of them unavoidable, and all of them standing between you and whatever you’re actually looking for. If you’re tired of endless browsing purgatory, I’ve pulled together a list of 12 must-see TV shows that everyone (yes, even your dad) ought to try at least once. There’s range here—sitcoms, prestige drama, gonzo genre stuff—but every show on this list left a mark on television history…and probably your group chat, too.

• 'The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air' (1990–1996)
  Before Will Smith punched Chris Rock or saved the world from aliens, he was better known as 'The Fresh Prince'—one half of a clean-cut rap duo with DJ Jazzy Jeff that even netted the first-ever Best Rap Grammy. NBC handed him his own sitcom, and despite Smith having precisely zero acting experience, he ran with it. What looked like a corny fish-out-of-water comedy about a Philly kid living with rich relatives soon turned into something surprisingly thoughtful: the Banks family tackled class, race, and absentee dads without ever dropping the laughs. It was miles ahead of most of its peers—especially in centering a Black family in a prime-time sitcom, something TV still seems to find rocket science.
• 'The Sopranos' (1999–2007)
  You’ve heard the phrase 'prestige TV.' Blame (or thank) The Sopranos. On paper, it’s about a mob boss juggling organized crime and his own anxiety, but what David Chase actually delivered was a complex mosaic of family drama, pitch-black comedy, and surreal detours into Tony Soprano’s psyche. The therapy scenes were basically a blueprint for complex TV antiheroes, and the show’s unpredictable writing and moody direction made it clear: TV could play in the same league as any art house film. It also has one of the most shouted-about finales in TV history.
• 'The Twilight Zone' (1959–1964)
  Throw out everything you know about anthology TV: The Twilight Zone invented the rulebook. Each episode is a stand-alone trip through the weird, the uncanny, and the straight-up unsettling, often capped off with a final twist that even modern viewers won’t see coming. Rod Serling’s narration became the stuff of legend, and the show’s stories regularly slipped in sly (or not-so-sly) commentary on social anxieties of the time. The phrase 'twilight zone' is now so baked into our language that it’s basically shorthand for any moment where reality stops making sense.
• 'Seinfeld' (1989–1998)
  The 'show about nothing' that actually turned out to be about…well, everything awkward, trivial, and infuriating about daily life. Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer didn’t solve crimes or change the world—they obsessed about soup etiquette and puffy shirts. Yet somehow it was both ridiculously funny and oddly philosophical (dig a little deeper and you'll spot themes about death, faith, and what rules we choose to live by). TV Guide once called it the best show ever. They weren’t wrong.
• 'The Simpsons' (1989–Present)
  If you grew up thinking cartoons were just for kids, The Simpsons probably destroyed that notion. It launched a prime-time animated revolution, gleefully roasting everything from politics to pop culture. Homer, Bart, and the rest of Springfield became pop icons, and the show’s self-aware humor opened the floodgates for the entire adult animation boom that followed. And yes, it’s been running so long it’s outlasted multiple U.S. Presidents and half its fan base’s patience.
• 'Game of Thrones' (2011–2019)
  Forget about the final season (seriously, your brain will thank you). For most of its run, Game of Thrones was the TV event of the decade—a grand, bloody fantasy saga packed with dragons, political intrigue, and enough jaw-dropping plot twists to crash Twitter every Sunday night. It dragged high fantasy out of geeky obscurity and into the pop culture mainstream. With 59 Emmys, it’s statistically the most awarded scripted show ever. Plenty of series have tried to mimic its scale, but few have matched its obsessive world-building or the complicated charisma of its ensemble cast.
• 'Black Mirror' (2011–Present)
  Moral panic about screens and AI? Charlie Brooker was way ahead of the curve. Black Mirror riffs on The Twilight Zone template but swaps in near-future tech horrors—social rating apps, digital immortality, and other nightmarish stuff that sounds more and more like your actual life with each passing year. Every episode is a standalone trainwreck of human ambition vs. technology, and it’s often so plausible that, halfway through, you find yourself digging out your old flip phone just to feel safe.
• 'The Muppet Show' (1976–1981)
  Don’t be fooled by the fuzzy faces: The Muppet Show was wild, clever, and often way funnier for adults than kids. Jim Henson assembled a crew of chaotic puppets, corny sketches, and top-tier musical numbers—and then somehow convinced the likes of Elton John, Diana Ross, and Steve Martin to join the ride. There’s meta humor, showbiz satire, slapstick, running gags, and yes, lots of monsters heckling from the balcony. This is the Muppets at full, irrepressible power, and the reason you’ll hear references pop up in everything from comedy specials to theme parks today.
• 'Breaking Bad' (2008–2013)
  No one expected Hal from Malcolm in the Middle to transform himself into a meth baron, but Bryan Cranston’s turn as Walter White was the TV transformation of the century. Creator Vince Gilligan’s story of a cancer-stricken chemistry teacher turning bad (and then, somehow, even badder) took the slow-burn antihero arc to the next level. Every episode escalates the stakes and the moral ambiguity, and it’s responsible for a real bump in blue meth lab busts—proof, apparently, that art really does imitate life (or at least gives people bad ideas). The mountain of awards is deserved.
• 'Stranger Things' (2016–2025)
  Take a bunch of lovable kids, toss them into 1980s suburbia, and add killer monsters lurking in parallel dimensions. Stranger Things is part Stephen King, part Spielberg, and all about nostalgia. At its core, the cast’s chemistry sells it: you really believe these are middle schoolers caught in a world that’s way too freaky for anyone, let alone people still figuring out algebra. The show manages to feel like a throwback one minute and totally modern the next, which is probably why it’s the closest thing Netflix will ever have to a crowd-pleaser for both Gen X and Gen Z.

There you have it: twelve shows that shifted the rules, set trends, or just flat-out demanded your attention. Still think TV’s all the same? Not even close.

'There’s never a dull moment in Breaking Bad. The show’s cultural impact is evident all around us, from its influence on future TV shows and the re-invention of its star, Bryan Cranston.'